The Q Tour is a series of

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournaments, immediately below the level of the World Snooker Main Tour. The tour originally ran between the 1994–95 season and the 2004–05 season as professional non-ranking events. Due to the large numbers of players on tour at that time the new WPBSA Minor Tour was formed so players lower down the rankings had tournaments to play in. It was subsequently rebranded the UK Tour and then the Challenge Tour. It was revived for the 2018–19 season, before being rebranded as the Q Tour for the 2021–22 season.

History

The concept of a secondary professional tour was first experimented with in the 1994–95 season in the form of the ''WPBSA Minor Tour'' to provide competition for lower ranked professionals, but only ran for a season. Due to over-subscription of the

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

, a two-tiered tour structure was adopted from the 1997–98 season resulting in the '' Main Tour'' and the ''UK Tour''. The ''Main Tour'' had an exclusive membership, whereas initially the whole professional membership could compete on the ''UK Tour'' and the best performers could earn promotion. From the 1999–2000 season, entry was limited to players not competing on the ''Main Tour'', and from the 2001–02 season the ''UK Tour'' itself had an exclusive membership. From the 2000–01 season it was rebranded the ''Challenge Tour''. In its first season there were five events, but the number was reduced to four in the following seasons. There were two official

maximum break A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a one-four-seven) is the highest possible in a single of snooker. A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, followed by all six for a further 27 ...

s at the ''UK Tour'', both in the 1998–99 season; the first was made by

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

against

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championsh ...

in Event 3, and the second by

Nick Dyson Nick Dyson (born 19 December 1969 in Hessle, Hull) is an English former professional snooker player. He competed on the main tour over sixteen seasons between 1989 and 2006. Career Born in 1969, Dyson turned professional in 1989. In his firs ...

against

Adrian Gunnell Adrian Gunnell (born 24 August 1972) is an English former professional snooker player from Telford. He has reached the last-16 in four world ranking events (three in Asia, in three different seasons, and at the 2008 Grand Prix), but has yet to ...

in Event 4. The tour was discontinued after 2004–05 season. The

Pro Challenge Series The Pro Challenge Series was a series of non-ranking snooker tournaments held during the 2009–10 snooker season. The events were open to all players on the main tour and were intended to give tour players more playing opportunities. Seven event ...

was introduced for the 2009–10 season, all tour players being eligible to play. Only four of the planned seven events were played before the series was axed due to low player participation. The following season,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, saw the Pro Challenge Series replaced by the

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

, a secondary tour comprising tournaments carrying ranking points, but at a much lower tariff than the major televised tournaments. The Challenge Tour was revived in the 2018–19 season, consisting of ten events each played over one or two days, with prize money offered and a maximum field of 72 players (top 64 of the Q School Order of Merit, plus eight wildcards). The top two players from the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

Order of Merit received a tour card for the following season. From the 2020–21 season, the Challenge Tour was rebranded as the Q Tour.

Event finals

Order of Merit winners

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Q Tour Snooker amateur competitions Snooker non-ranking competitions Snooker tours and series Snooker competitions in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events established in 1994 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Recurring sporting events established in 2018 2018 establishments in the United Kingdom